


Feeling Different

by Duck_Life



Category: Z-O-M-B-I-E-S (2018)
Genre: Coming Out, Cousins, Family, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 20:57:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13725828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: Bucky tells Addison a secret.





	Feeling Different

Addison walks along the Seabrook-Zombietown barrier beside her older cousin, trying not to trip over the cinder blocks. In Seabrook, the closer you get to the barrier, the less perfect everything gets. The weeds are overgrown and the asphalt is all crumbly. It’s kind of nice; it feels more real than the polished neighborhoods she and Bucky come from. 

She looks left and right, and then she pulls off her blonde wig and tucks it under her arm. “Hey, hey, what are you doing?” Bucky says. He’s fourteen and he might as well know everything. 

“No one can see us,” Addison says, shaking out her bright white hair. “And… the wig itches.” 

“Just be careful.” Bucky grabs her hand and helps her over a moderately sized pile of rubble. “How’s the new school?”

She started at Seabrook Middle last week. “I love it!” Addison declares, twirling in a little circle. “There’s a girl in my math class that I know from cheer camp and the cafeteria is  _ huge _ .” She giggles, looking up at Bucky. “What about you? What’s high school like?”

“Well, it’s terrifying,” he tells her in his best scary story voice. “There’s a pool… but it’s full of hammerhead sharks. And in the cafeteria, every third meal is poisoned.”

Addison’s eyes get saucer-wide… until she realizes he’s messing with her. “Bucky!” she says, smacking him on the arm. “I’m serious.”

“High school’s great,” he says, laughing. “I, uh, I made cheer squad.”

Addison squeals. “Congratulations! How could you not tell me earlier?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I forgot.”

“You  _ forgot _ ? About  _ cheer _ ?” She looks mad enough to kick him in the shins. “I’m so excited for you! Oh my gosh, you’re gonna be captain in no time.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Addy,” he says, ruffling her hair. “I’m just glad to be on the squad.” They walk in silence for a few minutes, and then Bucky stops and picks up a rock. It’s smooth and oval; a good skipping rock. He lobs it over the barrier. “You’re keeping the wig on, right? I mean when you’re not around family.”

“Yeah,” she says, giving him a weird look. He knows that. “Yeah, always.”

“Good.” Bucky rolls his sleeves up and then back down again, fidgeting. “Good. Because, you know, people around here don’t like anything that stands out. Anything different.” 

Addison tilts her head to the side, looking up at him. “I  _ know _ , Bucky,” she says. “I’m not a little kid anymore. I’m almost twelve.” 

“Yeah, I know.” He ruffles her hair again. She kind of likes it. He never does that when she has the wig on; it’s too easy to mess it up. “I just want you to be safe. I don’t want anybody to mess with you.”

“I know,” she whines. “What’s up with you?”

Bucky doesn’t answer her. He just picks up a stick off the ground and drags it along the metal of the barrier as they walk, making a tinny sound. Finally, he admits, “I like someone.”

Addison squeals again. “That’s so exciting! Oh my gosh, what is she like?”

“He,” Bucky corrects her, looking away. “It’s a boy.”

Addison processes that for a minute. “You have a crush on a boy?” she says. “Is that allowed?” One of her cheer camp friends has two dads, but people don’t really talk about it. And besides, they’re grown-ups. Bucky’s not. 

“It’s  _ allowed _ ,” Bucky says, looking at her with good-natured condescension, like when he has to explain to her how WiFi works or why they have the barrier. “It’s just not… I mean, people don’t like to talk about it. You can’t tell anyone!”

“I won’t,” she promises.

“It’s kind of like your hair,” Bucky says. “It’s like, there’s this thing about me. And it’s a big thing about me that I can’t change, but nobody can know. Because they’d treat me different.”

“Oh.” Addison bumps his shoulder with her own. “ _ I _ don’t think you’re any different.”

Bucky smiles at her. “Thanks, cuz.” He glances behind them and then drops into a defensive pose. “Oh no.”

“What?”

“I think I saw some zombies behind us.”

Addison scowls. “You did not.”

“No, seriously, they’re over there. You don’t see them?” he says, crouching and looking from side to side. “I gotta keep you safe. That’s my job.”

“Bucky—”

“I’ve got you!” he crows, scooping her up under her elbows and hauling her away from the wall. When they’re a couple yards away, he spins her around and then plants her back on the ground. “Phew! That was close.”

“There’s no zombies over there,” Addison says, but she’s laughing. “Stop goofing around.”

“Oh no… I’ve been bit,” Bucky says dramatically. He executes a perfect death drop and falls to the ground. “Oh, I’m  _ changing _ … I’m turning into a zombie, Addy… tell my mother I love her.”

“Stop,” she whines. Bucky pulls her down to the ground with him and loops an arm around her. He takes her wig from under her arm and perches it haphazardly on his own head.

“Do you think this is my color?”

“Oh, yeah, you look great,” Addison laughs. “So are you going to tell the boy you like that you like him?”

Bucky’s face falls. “I don’t think I’m ready for that,” he says. “And I don’t know if I ever will be. I just started high school, just made the squad. I don’t want people thinking I’m different from anybody else.”

“Even if it made you happy?”

“Being different doesn’t make anyone happy,” Bucky says, looking up at the sky. It’s starting to cloud over, and so is his face. “We should probably get going.” He pushes himself up to a standing position and looks back down at her. “Come on.”

“It’s okay if you like boys,” she says, because she hates to see him so gloomy. When they were little, he was the peppiest person she knew. Ever since he became a teenager, though, he’s been getting more and more sullen. And suddenly there are all these rules he has to follow. She doesn’t like it. “I mean, I won’t tell anyone. But I bet if  _ you _ told people they wouldn’t be mad.”

“Agree to disagree,” Bucky says, holding a hand out to help her up. Addison stands up. She puts her wig back on. “You want a piggyback ride?”

“Um,  _ yeah _ .” Bucky may be getting older, but he’s not too old for goofing around. She clambers onto his back and her cousin carries her back to town. 


End file.
